HarborView at Jones Landing Reviews

We held our wedding at HarborView at Jones Landing on Aug. 4th and had the best experience! The venue is perfect for a Maine wedding and as not one of our wedding guests were originally from the state of Maine, my husband and I really wanted to show our guests the beauty of the area and why we've fallen in love with it. This venue truly enabled us to do so. The views of the setting sun over the harbor were just spectacular and we were able to get some exquisite pictures with our photographer!!

Working with Robin was also fantastic. She was always very responsive and walked me through any outstanding questions I had...even up until the day of the wedding! The bar staff was also great and we received so many compliments from our guests on all aspects of the venue, the view, and the staff! We couldn't have been happier. :)

We were married on August 28th at the Harbor View (Jones Landing), and couldn’t have found a better venue! There is an outdoor ceremony space that directly overlooks the ocean, and your guests can mingle either inside, or in the garden prior to the event (and during the cocktail hour, if you have one). The deck has been completely redone, and is very nice. In case of bad weather, there are clear sides to the tent, so your “Plan B” is still 360 degree ocean view.




Many of our guests flew in from California for our wedding, and were amazed and delighted to get to travel out to a Maine island (for many, it was their first trip to Maine). If you have a lot of out of town guests, it makes for a memorable experience to gather down at the ferry terminal, all ride out together to Peaks, and then walk right into Harbor View.




Robin (the owner) was very easy to work with regarding the alcohol/bar (the catering is handled by Black Tie Catering, also top notch!). She has both wine and liquor lists that cover every price range, and was more than willing to special order wine for us that was not on her list.
I would highly recommend this venue. Like I said, I don’t believe we could have found a more beautiful place to celebrate our marriage.

We had our wedding ceremony and reception at Jones Landing. It was phenomenal! It was just a few steps away from the ferry which was very convenient for the guests. The venue is so gorgeous! We got so many compliments on our choice of venue. It is the best view of the Portland harbor on Peaks island. The sunset is gorgeous. Another plus of the venue is that there is also a cabin right next door that you can rent. We rented it the night before and had all of the bridesmaids get ready there in the morning. It was so nice to get ready on the deck that overlooks the ocean! I would HIGHLY reccommend Jones Landing!

The perfect venue for a casual yet elegant Maine wedding! I got so many compliments from guests and everyone loved taking the ferry over. The venue has gorgeous views and a great ocean breeze that comes through- it was the best!

We held our wedding at Harbor View at Jones Landing in July, and it was beautiful. The location is stunning, and the facilities are great. We had a party of around 75, but it would have comfortably handled a party twice the size. There is plenty of room on the nice covered deck, and there’s a lot more space inside. The lawn down by the water (where we held the ceremony) is also beautiful, as there are a lot of flowering bushes and great views of Portland (and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a great sunset).

The one slight criticism is that Robin can be a little hard to get in touch with, especially by email. She’s much easier to reach by phone. But since (as of this writing, anyway) they have an exclusive contract with Black Tie, you’ll mostly be dealing with Black Tie for all the planning details anyway. Robin still handles the bar order, and placing that, and getting the invoice was a little more complicated than we would have liked, but it all worked out fine in the end.

Overall it was a beautiful experience. Having the guests arrive by ferry, and seeing the whole wedding set up right off the dock, is really cool. And there are great places for photos at Jones Landing and around the island.

This location was perfect for my wedding! It is located overlooking the water, with beautiful places for photos on the docks and beaches. It is a spectacular location! The reception area is lovely, and dresses up very nicely with the linens and decorations. Black Tie was a pleasure to work with. Robin (the owner) was very friendly and met all of our needs, though was sometimes difficult to get ahold of. Overall, I had a great experience and would highly recommend this venue.

In the Spring of 2009, HarborView at Jones Landing underwent a renovation where they expanded their deck and I think installed a new tent. We were lucky to have a beautiful, sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. It did not rain at all, so this venue was absolutely perfect. The day was just beautiful. Working with Robin, the owner, was challenging at times because she prefers to speak over the phone and when my husband would email her to confirm, she wouldn't respond so there was no written documentation regarding pricing. We originally wanted to pay a flat fee per hour per guest for the open bar and she agreed, but then three weeks before the wedding when we confirmed, she said that $5/person/hour was only an estimation and that they would actually charge each drink on one tab. We weren't really left with a choice. That was really the only miscommunication that we had. At the end of the night when we settled up there were still a few people getting drinks and it was fine, so it wasn't too strict. The location is beautiful if you want a non-traditional wedding. I thought it was weird that I wasn't going to be walking down an aisle, but rather, a private dock. and we exited out to that private dock and my husband and I shared a few moments by ourselves. It was truly beautiful, but not for everyone. The service was pretty good, although I feel like they might have been understaffed. A lot of the staff was manning the food stations, so the tables that had already finished eating sat with dirty plates in front of them for a while. Also, my husband and I didn't have any wine on our sweetheart table so when the toasts started we had to frantically get wine from another table. These things might really bother someone else, but I like to think I was a pretty laid back bride. Our families are such fun, happy people and our guests kept telling us it was one of the best weddings they had ever been to. You can't beat the ferry ride over to Peaks Island, and the view of the ocean with all the sailboats in the background as you say your vows. Truly amazing.

HarborView is a beautiful venue. The pictures their website don't do it justice at all. The venue overall is well maintained with beautiful gardens and a stunning view of the bay and the sunset in the evening. You really can't beat the location and the view. Harbor View provides their own bar service as well as just the physical location (but The Black Tie Company is the exclusive caterer for the venue). Robin, the venue owner, is nice and easy to work with but was often slow in responding to phone calls or e-mails so it took a while to get the bar details all set up and worked out. Despite having a bar sheet with our preferences filled out beforehand shots and a higher price beer were served against what was agreed upon. Once we notified them they said they would take the shots off of our tab and only charge the beer at the price we had agreed on with our other mico-brews. We also had an electrical problem due to a faulty extension cord provided by the venue our music kept cutting out. Overall Harbor view was really flexible and let us customize the bar with a drink recipe that we provided and wine, champagne, and beer that aren't part of normal offerings.

First things first, I will say that we would recommend a wedding at Harborview in a heartbeat--for the relatively modest price to get the venue (and the excellent service that comes along with Black Tie Company managing the event) and the lovely-yet-not-overly-fancy location (which is also wonderful in that guests can literally walk off the ferry and into the venue). It's really a wonderful venue that showcases Maine's beauty and delivers the convenience of downtown Portland with the beauty of the outdoors and the ocean. Can't say enough good things about the venue as a physical space.

That being said, we encountered a lot of problems communicating with Robin, the venue owner. There were certain things we had to coordinate with her on (and couldn't decide with Sandra, our event coordinator at Black Tie), and we just straight up couldn't contact her a lot of the time. Emails and phone calls went unanswered. When we did speak, she would seem to note details without recording them, and I was always left worrying that she didn't get the finer points.

The biggest issue, however, was that we were surprised on our wedding day to find that Robin was out of the country! We had never been told she wouldn't be on-site at our event, and it quickly became clear that there were things that had not been communicated to the remaining staff and our event personnel from Black Tie. This included a mess at the end of the night: Robin had assured us that the final bar tab (it's pay-per-consumption, so we didn't know the total until the end of the night) would be settled during the week after our event, not the night of. But at the end of the night, our (very wonderful, polite) lead bartender asked us to the settle the bill. We did with extreme haste (the final ferry was leaving!) and made some embarrassing decisions regarding the tip (which we had already paid in an up-front gratuity charge--we didn't know that). Regardless to say, it was an annoying way to end the night.

The location is very beautiful, and amazing. BUT the service was lacking. The tents leaked all over me and my guests, and they tried to patch the leaks with Saran wrap! There were puddles everywhere, my shoes and dress were ruined! The DJ equipment was ruined!! They overcharged at the bar, and didn't make my signature drinks correctly. I wanted a blueberry martini (either blue, or clear with blueberries in it) and it was RED. It was really gross. Also, my Mailbu and Pineapple had PULP in it. yuck! We also wanted a sugar rim on the martinis, and the machine was broken. Then they fixed it half way through. We wanted a limited bar: beer, wine, soda, and the signature drinks...nothing else. But they were letting people get whatever they wanted, and charging us for some, and charging the guest for some. It was horrible!! I didn't want the guests to have to pay for their drinks...I just wanted open limited bar. I thought that was a simple request!! I guess not. They also were supposed to provide 2 bartenders...they only had 1. They never bussed glasses from the tables either, so the glasses were piled up on each other all night, and them my guest started to clear their own tables!!! Save yourself the aggravation, don't book here. I wish we hadn't.